Return to Rainbow Land
by J D Adams
Summary: In a world far beyond your own is a place that was once the source of all color in the universe. But that, my friends was years ago. What was once a world full of color and life is now a dark and desolate wasteland, and its greatest hero no long remembe


In a world far beyond your own is a place that was once the source of all color in the universe. But that, my friends was years ago. What was once a world full of color and life is now a dark and desolate wasteland, and its greatest hero no long remembers who she is. Her friends have been scattered by the power of a great evil that sought revenge for being thwarted ages ago. Very few of us are still strong enough to continue to resist the one known as the Dark Princess. Our only hope is to find out what she has done to our hero. But that shouldn't be any trouble for me, the most magnificent horse in all the universe! Don't worry Rainbow Bright, your faithful steed Starlite will find you and together we will return color and hope to Rainbowland and the rest of the universe!

Return to Rainbowland  
>Chapter 1: A girl named Wisp. <p>

A blonde girl walks down the street, dressed in a denim skirt, white shirt and denim jacket that has a rainbow embroidered on one pocket, and white sneakers. Next to her walks a boy, about 4 inches taller then she is, he's has soft brown hair and is dressed in a blue baseball jersey with the number 11 on the back, jeans, and black sneakers. Both kids are followed by yellow cocker spaniel who seems to be getting on in years.

_ My name is Wisp Willows, I'm just your everyday average 13 y/o girl. I go to school, I spend time with my family. This is my best friend Brian Bertrand. He's a couple of years older then me, but ever since we met we've seemed to have some kind of connection. It felt like we already knew each other, but that just seems silly. Behind us is his dog Sam who seems to follow him everywhere, he even waits out side of school all day until the final bell rings. The school staff allow it since he doesn't cuase any trouble. _

The pair reach a wooden house, it looks like it's seen better days having been battered by the weather and could use a new coat of paint, but its occupants just don't seem to see much point in fixing up the place. The mailbox outside reads 'Bertrand'.

"So, you wanna come inside with me Wisp? Maybe you could help me with my homework. You always were a bright one, and I'm just a dumb jock." Brian says with a light chuckle.

"Don't say that, Brian. You're plenty smart! Just not with books." Wisp giggles and smiles sweetly to him. "You don't get to be the star player with out being able to memorize all the plays and signals the coach gives you. Everyone has their own things they are good at!"

"Yeah, I guess you're right Wisp. I don't know how you can remain so positive all the time. Things just always seem so bleak and desperate in the world now a days. Like all the life and hope has vanished, yet some how, you always remain so cheerful. I think I'd go nuts if I didn't have you as a friend." Brain replies as he heads up on thee porch, as Sam barks angrily at him. "Oh you know what I mean, boy. You're great too, but you can't talk back. Doesn't mean I appreciate you any less then I do Wisp." Sam barks happily and wags his tail as he hops up on the porch, showing little signs of his age.

Wisp can't help but giggle at Brian's conversation with Sam, before finally joining them on the porch. "I've just never seen any point in being negative, no matter how bad things seem. If you just give up, things will never get any better. I just wish I could do more for people to get them to realize that, but anyway lets get our homework done, then maybe we can do something to help get your mind off of things."

_As much as I hate to admit it, what Brian says is true. The world does seem to be getting darker and colder everyday. More people lose their jobs, everyone seems to be at everyone else's throats. Even families seem to have trouble remaining together. Why does it feel like the world has grown to be such a cold and cynical place? Is it just my imagination? I feel like the world used to be brighter and happier when I was younger. I get told that's just the rose colored glasses of youth… but… I don't know… It feels… it feels like I am forgetting something. And every time I'm on the very of remembering what it just gets further and further away… _

The pair head to the kitchen table and sets down their book bags and begin to do their homework…

"Ehehehe!" The laugh, it echoes in the gloomy and bleak caverns. "At last… I shall rule all this! No more shall there be color in the world! My gloom clouds will drain all hope and color from everything, and I! I shall rule over all! Ehehehe!" The small bluish-gray old man, dressed in various shades of gray and black, a cape flowing behind him with the picture of a gray cloud and a lightning bolt, says in his weaselly voice.

"Not so fast! There will always be hope and colors while I'm around!" A young blonde girl dressed in blue and red says as she bursts into to the man's lair riding a brilliant white horse as they gallop on solid rainbow. "I will always be here to stop you!" She says as she presses a button shaped like a star on her belt, and another rainbow bursts forth and surrounds the 'gloom clouds' turning them from coal black to snow white.

"Ooo… I'll get you R…"

"Daydreaming and doodling rainbows again, Wisp? You are such a girl!" Brian laughs playfully as he peaks over the girl's shoulder as she daydreams a bit. On the paper she's drawn a picture of a white horse head with rainbow main that flows down the page.

Wisp gasps and blinks as Brian's words snap her out of daydream... "I AM a girl Brian!" She says and swats him playfully.

"Yeah, but that seems so stereotypically girlish. You're like obsessed with rainbows and horses, and like all that old super colorful Anne Frank type stuff." Brian replies.

"Lisa Frank, Brian. Anne Frank's the Jewish girl with the diary." Wisp corrects.

Brian groans. "See! That's why I need you around to tutor me! So I don't make a fool of myself in public with mistakes like that!"

"Yeah, but you do such a good job of making a fool of yourself around me." Wisp giggles playfully.

"Wisp…" Brian sighs softly.

"Its fine Brian. I think its cute." She smiles to him and gives him a kiss on the cheek.

Brian blinks softly, stunned into silence by the kiss. He stumbles back a bit. Yeah she's a bit younger then he is; but she's still the cutest girl in school and will look amazing when she's older, a real blonde bombshell. He shakes his head softly, he shouldn't be thinking those kind of thoughts about his best friend. He's seen too many friendships get ruined when affections weren't returned because the other didn't feel the same way. He wouldn't want to lose her, the only light he can find in this world, even if it means just remaining friends.

Wisp giggles at his reaction before turning back to look at the picture she doodled, one more trying to figure out why it seems so familiar, other then the fact she drawn and doodles many others like it all while day dreaming. Everything feeling like she should know it but all she has is vague images pictures in her head that swirl around when she lets her mind drift. Why couldn't she remember anything?

Meanwhile in land that has lost it's colors, there stands what used to be a brilliant golden castle, surrounded by seven domed towers. A dark purple force field prevents anyone from entering or leaving. Peering out one of the windows is a girl dressed almost entirely in various shades of pink, with her pink hair up in a pair of pony tails. She struggles at the window trying to futility to get out before the castle's new owner spots her.

Purple energy zaps the girl as a voice speaks up. "Don't bother girl. This is MY Castle now, and none is more befitting my beauty. It was wasted on you commoners before I came and took over. It was the prefect welcoming present for me. I control all the colors now, I decide what is beautiful and who gets to see it. And I won't let it be wasted on the dregs of society like you all allowed, Tickled Pink." Its an older feminine voice, filled with sneering contempt and haughtiness.

"Who said I was going anywhere? I LIKE it here!" Tickled Pink says with a scoff, trying to stall for time. "And do you really think you can keep all the color her for yourself? Rainbow Brite will return, and she'll stop you like she's done in the past!"

The woman known as the Dark Princess steps into the light as she comes closer to Tickled Pink, she's in regal black pantsuit with a black cape, adorned with gold trim and red belt with a rainbow on it. Her red hair is framed by a gold and scarlet tiara. Around her neck on a brilliant gold chain is the most amazing diamond anyone has ever seen. And around her right wrist is a silver bracelet with a Prism on top that rests against her hand. "Oh such loyalty to that little brat. Even after so many years when she deserted you. Leaving all her little kingdom to be defended by helpless children and a few animals. She really should have known better. It all so touching, it almost moves even my little black heart. But truth is she was just sick of all you pathetic losers."

Tickled Pink takes a step back, shaking her head. Lies, she knows that is what they are. The Dark Princess is trying to make her lose hope, to break her like she broke the other color kids. "S-she didn't desert us… She… She just missed her family… that's all. She went back to spend time with them. She'll be back…"

The Dark Princess laughs and smiles cruelly. "Well, whatever you want to believe… But she's happy down their on Earth. She's living the life she longed for. Just a normal girl, with a normal life, and normal friends. Rainbow Land is nothing more but a dream that she only half remembers. Its all in her imagination. She's NEVER coming back."

Tickled Pink blinks and glares at the Dark Princess. "Rainbow doesn't remember us? No… That's not true! That's impossible! What did you do to her!" The pink girl demands.

The older woman just handwaves the girl's demands "Oh cheer up, your friend Moonglow will be here shortly to keep you company. Then all I need to do it hunt down the last of you Sky Powers; Stormy, I believe that brats' name is, and then my rule will be uncontested. The universe and all its wonders will belong to me, just as they should. Even Spectra bows to my rule now. Everything your little hero accomplished means nothing." She says with an evil laugh.

Outside side in the gray colorless courtyard, hiding among the bushes are a few splashes of colors. The last of the known resistance against the Dark Princess. A girl dressed in shades of purple, with midnight blue hair, and crescent moon belt peers at her former home. She wields a blue want with a crescent moon at the end. At her feet is a bright yellow spaniel with multicolored ears and a collar similar to the belt the Dark Princess was wearing.

"The Color Castle isn't as friendly as it used to be, P. B." She says in a soft voice. "I just hope this Moon Scepter is all that its cracked up to be." P. B. barks cheerfully trying to encourage the girl.

Moonglow points the scepter at the Color Castle and fires a beam of pure moonlight at the purple force field. At first it looks to be working when the field extends outward and around the wand. "I-its no use… Its pulling me in P. B.! Go find Starlite! He'll know what to do! Rainbow Brite is our only hope!" She cries out before she is pulled through the force field and into the Color Castle. P. B. watches helplessly before she barks and runs off to find the last free horse.

Back on Earth, Wisp and Brian have finished their homework and have made their way up into his room to relax for a bit. Brian's room is filled mostly with sports memorabilia, a single twin bed, a padded blanket for Sam which the old dog immediately curls up on. It also has an old TV and a game system hooked up to it.

"So you managed to buy a Macrohard Playcube 180?" Wisp asks as she looks over to the gaming machine next to the TV. "I thought those cost a fortune."

"I was able to save some from my paper route and birthday money. It's a bit cheaper because its used. But it works well enough. Wanna play something on it with me before you have to head home?"

"Sure." Wisp replies. When Brian goes over to pull out the controllers she sees something glittering that catches her eye. She rushes over and grabs its. "What is this?" She asks looking to an old bronze key that has a rainbow at the end. As she gazes at it her mind can't help but seem to drift for a moment

"Oh boy! Look at all the pretty colors!" A large brown fuzzy monster exclaims being overjoyed as he sees a rainbow in the sky, as a girl on a white horse dashes along top of it. She seems to smile and wave down to them as she passes. "Oh I do wish I could ride the pretty horsy like she does!"

"Eeeeh… There won't BE any colors soon Banana Brain! So pay attention! Now that she is leaving we finally have our chance to take over Rainbow Land! Those kids don't stand a chance without her! After we're done… we will never see her again! Ehehehe!" Says the short blue-gray man as he puts the finishing touches on some device he cobbled together from junk he had lying around.

"Whatever you say M…"

Brian chuckles softly "Oh, of course you'd notice that… Ms Rainbow." He says, his voice bringing Wisp out of her daze. "Really I'm not sure where it came from, but it seems like I've had it forever, just didn't feel right to get rid of it ya know? But hey, since you like Rainbows you can have it." He smiles.

"Are you sure, Brian? It seems like its important to you if you've not been able to get rid of it."

"Actually, yeah I am… I dunno… It just feels right to give it to you. Besides its not like I am throwing it away or anything. Just giving it to my best friend, and I know its something you'll appreciate."

Wisp smiles and tucks it into her pocket before hugging Brian and once more giving him a kiss on the check. "Thanks Brian! You're so wonderful!"

The yellow spaniel runs into the most depressing place in Rainbow Land, even now in all its cold colorless lifelessness; The Pits remain a foreboding place where few dare to tread. The Pits were home to Murkwell 'Murky' Dismal and his hench-monster Lurky. Murky was a mean and twisted old man who had grown up to hate color, and devoted his existence to ridding the universe of it. A bit of a mad scientist he created machine out of anything he could get his hands on, though Lurky, being about a dozen apples short of a bushel, always messed things up for him. That was then, this is now.

When the Dark Princess returned, the first thing she did was banish the duo to her prison planet for their roles in her previous defeats by the hero Rainbow Brite. Even without its tenant, the Pits remain as gloomy and depressing as ever. It also ironically became the only safe haven from the Dark Princess' rule. In all her vain glory she refuses to enter the Pits for how dirty and disgusting she finds them. It is here, that the most magnificent horse in the universe now, very reluctantly, calls home.

The white stallion prances about on his golden hooves, with his rainbow colored mane blowing in the breeze. He is possibly the only other being in the universe that could match the Dark Princess in a contest of Pride and Vanity, but unlike her, he has heart, courage and determination. He's not one to give up on his friends. He knows Rainbow Brite is out there, but without a rainbow bridge he is unable to reach her.

"Oh why do I stay here? I always get so dirty and it is nearly impossible to take a bath in the rapids or the gray waters in Rainbow Land. I should be out there, regaling people with my beauty and grace, Showing off my charms. I used to be praised for my appearance, and now look at me!" He says as he stamps his hoof on the ground.

P. B. runs up to Starlite and begins to bark loudly to get his attention. "What? P. B.? What are you doing here? Where is Moonglow?" P. B. barks again in response. "Captured by the Dark Princess? Oh dear me… Now what are we going to do? Stormy and Skydancer haven't been seen in months. The Color Kids have lost their colors, Krys and On-X are stuck on Spectra, the Sprites are slaving away in the Color Caves under Count Blogg. Now both Moonglow and Tickled Pink are the Dark Princess' prisoners. Things are as bad now or worse then they were when the King of Shadows ruled back when I first met Rainbow…" He says with a sigh.

"Do not despair Starlite." Says a mysterious disembodied voice. The pair of animals look around and see an light orb descend from the heavens.

"It's the Sphere of Light! " Starlite exclaims.

As the Sphere of Light touches the ground it turn into a young girl around the age of 10, she's the splitting image of Rainbow Brite used to, except that her uniform is pink and white, and her hair is a soft baby pink.

It takes a moment for Starlite to recognize the form. "You're the Baby that we rescued as well?"

"I take many forms, dear Starlite. Back then I took the form of a Baby to help guide you all to the Color Belt. Now I take the form of your friend to help guide your way to returning her to us. My power is weak thanks to all the gloom and despair that fills the land once more. I only have enough power to send you one way, you will need to find your own way back I am afraid. Once you return, you will need to seek out the Star Scepter; it's the only thing that can combat the Dark Princess while she has the Color Belt and Rainbow Prism." Kid Brite presses the star on her belt, and rather then a Rainbow, a bridge of light appears.

"But how will we find the Star Scepter when we get back?" Starlite asks as he walks over to the bridge, P. B. jumping up onto his back.

"When her memory returns, she will know the way." Kid Brite says before she fades back into an orb, and Starlite dashes off to Earth to help find Rainbow land's last hope.

_Okay, now I know I'm not just misremembering things. I know video games used to be brighter and colorful! Now it seems like all the games Brian owns have a brown filter over them washing out all the colors. Is there something wrong with thing being bright and colorful? Do colors detract from game play or something? When did our imaginations become to be filtered against color? _

"Wisp? You alright? You seem to be spacing out more then usual today." Brian says and he looks to the girl sitting next to him on his bed.

"I'm fine Brian." She smiles back to him sweetly "Just my mind seems to be somewhere else today. _That key doesn't seem to be helping matter much either. I know I've seen it before today… If only I could remember where._

"Maybe I should walk you home? Make sure you don't get lost or anything if you start to space out again." Brian replies with a chuckle.

"That will be nice." She says as she stands up, she feels that she might indeed get lost today with how much her mind has been drifting off to that fantasy land in her head.

Once outside the pair walk down the street, Sam as always following behind, neither of them notice the beam of light that appears behind a house on their way to Wisp's house. What they do notice however is a small yellow puppy that rushes out and starts barking excitedly as she notices Wisp. Wisp smiles and kneels down. "Aw, what a cute little puppy!"

The puppy bounces around and runs circles around Wisp before darting back around the house, only stopping to look to Wisp, seeming to want her to follow. "Come on Brian, I think it wants us to follow us."

Brian chuckles "Yeah, I guess Timmy's fallen down the well again." He says and follows Wisp and the puppy behind the house, not expecting anything important and they really aren't in a hurry.

What they find back their surprise both of them. In the middle of backyard in suburbia; is horse of a different color.

"What an amazing horse!" Wisp says.

"Excuse me, I am not simply amazing. Don't belittle my presence in that way. I am the most magnificent horse in the universe!" He says and shakes his mane from his eyes.

Both kids go slack jawed at this. "Y-You talk?" Brian stutters

"Of course I talk, I wouldn't be so magnificent if I didn't."

"S-starlite?" Wisp asks as seeing the horse opens a floodgate in her mind.

"Yes, it is I and I am here to take you back home. You are needed to save the world, Rainbow Brite."


End file.
